Greenville Student Wins Third at PBL Conference

Published: April 13, 2021

Senior Tyler Oesterreich won third place for Help Desk at the Professional Business Leaders National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Orlando, FL this summer.

Tyler is from Indianapolis, IN and is double-majoring in Digital Media and Business Administration while also pursuing a minor in Computer and Information Systems. "Working at Greenville's IT Help Desk prepared me for the Help Desk event at the NLC," explained Tyler. "The experience I've gained gave me both technical knowledge and the ability to problem-solve with customers in stressful situations."

Additionally, without Dr. Ivan Filby's confidence in me and his pushing me to do this, I never would have taken the initiative to compete, and I never would have achieved what I have. I had a lot of people who were really rooting for me and wanted me to succeed - one of the most prominent being my mentor, Deloy Cole. He has always showed great interest in my personal and academic development, and this was no exception. He was one of the very first to congratulate me upon my return. Since the events I competed in related to both technology and business, the Digital Media and Management departments both played a huge role in my reaching this point.

I am a senior and I wish to pursue IT Management after I graduate. I am currently interning at AT&T's IT headquarters in St. Louis to accomplish this goal, and I love it!

The National Leadership Conference is the culmination event for Phi Beta Lambda (PBL or Professional Business Leaders), an organization of college students from across the nation who study business or business-related fields. They hold events throughout the year, ranging from fundraising efforts (primarily with the March of Dimes) to speaking tours with successful businessmen and women. However, one of the most exciting things they do is hold Leadership Conferences, which are a combination ofcompetitiveevents, workshops, speakers, and team-building activities. The first such conference held every year is the State Leadership Conference (SLC). This year, Illinois' SLC was held in Effingham on April 8 and 9. We had a great group of students attend from Greenville (11 including myself), and came away with quite a few wins. Personally, I competed in the Business Communications, Help Desk, Computer Applications, Computer Concepts, and Management Analysis & Decision Making events at the SLC,. This was my first time attending, and I came away with 1st place wins in Help Desk, Business Communications, and Computer Concepts. I also placed 3rd in Management Analysis & Decision Making. If a student wins 1st or 2nd in anycompetitiveevent at State, they are theneligible to compete at Nationals.

There were over 1800 PBL members in attendance, and it was very exciting competing against them as they were the best of the best. After I completed in the objective tests and more soft-skill oriented second parts of both events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I finally found out late Sunday night that I placed 3rd in the Help Desk event, winning the title and a small cash award. I was excited! It was a great experience and one I won't easily forget. I'm glad I was able to represent the College in a great way, and am grateful for all the support I've been shown.

http://www.fbla-pbl.org/web/page/585/sectionid/585/pagelevel/2/pbl.asp